When It Comes To Investing, Are You A Bull Or A Bear? Or Are You More Of A Narwhal, Or A Mason Bee?

Bulls and bears aren't the only creatures into investing these days. (NAPS)

(NAPSI)—Investing experts typically refer to two iconic animal
mascots when talking about investor sentiment, the Bull and the Bear. If
you’re “bullish,” you think stocks are going up and you
invest aggressively. If you’re “bearish,” you expect stocks
to go down and you look for more conservative investments to wait out the
storm. Either way, you know what you want and you invest accordingly.

But there are more than two ways to approach investing—and many
Americans aren’t actually sure what their investing style really is. A
new survey by Ally Invest reveals that only 10 percent of Americans think of
themselves as Bulls and only 10 percent identify as Bears. It makes sense. To
identify as either a Bull or a Bear, you have to know which types of
investments you prefer and how much risk you’re comfortable taking. And
while more than half of Americans have some kind of savings account,
according to the Ally survey, only a third have a retirement savings plan
such as a 401(k) or other retirement plan, while less than one-quarter (23
percent) have stocks.

For example: One-third of Americans say they don’t invest enough to
have a particular style. They’re not Bulls or Bears—they’re
Emus, with their heads in the sand. And they’re not alone—8
percent of Americans find investing to be as mysterious as a Narwhal. They
don’t know enough about investing to know if they’re
conservative, aggressive, or somewhere in between. And 6 percent of survey
respondents pop in and out of investments unpredictably, appearing and
disappearing like the elusive Sasquatch.

Some survey respondents did have a defined investing style, but few saw
themselves as aggressive Bulls or conservative Bears. One in five survey
respondents are like investing Prairie Dogs—they like to be safe and
consistent, building a balanced, diversified portfolio—and 16 percent
are Mason Bees, carefully planning for the future. The 14 percent of
respondents who identify as Mules are very cautious, and the 13 percent who
identify as Owls tend to do a lot of research before making any investment
decisions.

Once you understand your real investing style, you can look for an
approach that will actually work for your personality. For example, Emus,
Narwhals and Sasquatches should look for help
getting more comfortable with investing, in order to increase their chances
of meeting their retirement savings goals. If you don’t invest enough
to understand your own style, consider an automated approach. A managed
portfolio or a target-date fund that automatically rebalances as you age can
take you all the way to retirement without requiring you to do a ton of
research. If you’re an Owl who loves to research all your options,
great—set aside time each year to review your portfolio, learn about
all your investments, and make any changes you need. But if you’re
never going to do that research, don’t let that hold you back from
meeting your goals. There are options out there for every kind of investor.

Bulls and Bears may work for
the professionals, but the rest of us in the real world may need a little
more guidance to get where we need to go. Understanding how you actually
approach investing is a great first step toward doing it more effectively.

“Once
you understand your real investing style, you can look for an approach that
will actually work for your personality. http://bit.ly/2Eme0gs”